UR students returned this semester to find the much-maligned Zoca in Wilson Commons replaced with the much-anticipated Burrito Bowl, which offers healthier and more diverse options than its predecessor. While Burrito Bowl is a step in the right direction, it is certainly not a leap toward providing a truly healthy array of options and programs for students. There is still work to be done by Dining in the way of publishing the nutritional information of its offerings and establishing usable guidelines for students to evaluate the healthiness of such.
The addition of Burrito Bowl is clearly part of a greater movement by Dining Services to offer wider variety and to cater to more diets. Students want options and the ability to control what they eat, two demands which Dining is attempting to meet. And students have made their message loud and clear in the two weeks Burrito Bowl has been open: just look at the lines winding through the Commons.
Students have not only approved of Burrito Bowl, but they have gravitated toward certain items on the menu, namely, the healthier items. According to Unit Marketing Manager for Aramark Kevin Aubrey, the new station’s namesake bowls have sold 2:1 over burritos, and salad sales are up 15 times Zoca’s numbers. Freshëns, the smoothie bar nestled within Burrito Bowl, sold over 2,000 smoothies in the first week after break. Aubrey said that Burrito Bowl is also selling a large number of the smaller size burritos, which he says might play useful roles in different diets.
Director of Dining Services and Auxiliary Operations Cam Schauf said that it is too early to tell if the massive jump in sales at Burrito Bowl will last, but that the evidence that students flock toward healthy food when given options exists. Schauf said that Dining is “always trying to beat the best station” in the Commons; they analyze the sales at each station and modify the stations to ensure that each one has something appealing to offer. Schauf said that Dining uses these sales analyses to “listen what students are saying.”
What Dining should hear from the students is that they want healthy food. Schauf said that Dining has two sources of input to juggle: what students are saying, and what they are actually doing. Students are saying they want healthy options, and they are eating the healthy options. When the Common Grill added healthier options to its menu, it temporarily became the best- selling station. When Pizza Pi added pasta options, it surged to first place. And now, Burrito Bowl seems to have a commanding lead as students’ favorite Commons station.
With options, however, must come education. Students might think Burrito Bowl is healthy, but they don’t know exactly how healthy it is. This is because the nutritional information provided by Dining is inadequate.
It should be noted that Dining is not legally required to post such information; although it is required by law in New York City, there is no law requiring food providers in the rest of New York State to post nutritional information. But just because it is not a legal requirement does not mean that Dining does not have an ethical obligation to publish nutritional information consistently and fully and to delineate its internal nutritional standards for the entire University community to see.
Dining currently has in place several inconsistently implemented programs to inform students of the nutrition in the food they’re eating. These programs are not implemented at every Dining facility on campus, nor is a sufficient effort made to educate students on using the guidelines currently in place. The best guidelines Dining currently has are those in the Healthy for Life program, which has a set of colorful blocks describing nutritional factors that are posted on nutritional information signs in dining halls.
Students should not have to look up the meanings of these arcane symbols on their own and decipher the hieroglyphs that denote gluten- free or low-sodium options. It is incumbent upon Dining to make this information easily accessible to students, and that does not mean letting students come into an office to look at a binder or having them look at graphs on faulty websites.
The easiest way to publicize this information is simply to post it in more visible locations. This means posting the full nutritional facts, as obtainable online, at the physical stations in the Commons. Students should be able to know that a small Freshëns Peanut Butter Protein smoothie contains 450 calories and 58 grams of sugar. Students should be able to know that a large Philly Cheesesteak from Rocky’s Sub Shop has 1190 calories and 2860mg of sodium, more sodium than the CDC recommends one get in a single day. Dining Services need not and cannot discontinue all menu items that breach a certain arbitrary guideline for nutrition, but it is obliged at least to inform students wanting to make decisions for themselves. Thus Dining should make more of an effort to be transparent, and should participate in a broader effort to present nutritional information in a way students will respond to.
Increasing transparency of nutritional facts, however, is just a first step in making eating on campus healthier. Dining must take in and respond to student input more; they may offer a diverse array of options, but students in general seem to flock toward the healthy and nutritious. Offering more healthy food can’t be a bad thing as long as there are options for those times when students want to indulge. The students have spoken through their enthusiasm over Burrito Bowl, and Dining Services should keep the movement for healthy, transparent food going.
